Sue's Blog

Showing posts with label vernon smith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vernon smith. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Will we be buying OUR Power from Emera next?

While PUB hearings continue on the "proposed" Muskrat Falls deal - Emera is humming along creeping further and further into Newfoundland and Labrador.

This "proposed" deal must just be words for show - similar to the "consumer (us)" PUB hearings that are underway - albeit controlled, manipulated, and interfered with.

Slowly but surely - the establishment that wanted to rid you of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro - are coming back to try again. We are going to be hammered and privatized.

Please read the story below from the Chronicle Herald:

Emera Utility Services Inc. announced Monday that it has acquired a Newfoundland company, establishing its first presence in that province.

Emera Utility Services has purchased Green’s Service Station Ltd., a utility line and communications construction, installation and maintenance business in Goobies, N.L.

A purchase price was not disclosed by the Nova Scotia company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Emera Inc.

“We’re not going to disclose the purchase price, other than it is not material to Emera,” said Emera Utility Services president and chief operating officer Dan Muldoon in a phone interview.

While Emera Newfoundland & Labrador, a company developing a Maritime link associated with the Lower Churchill project, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Emera Inc., Monday’s announced acquisition represents the first foray for Emera Utility Services into the Newfoundland market.

 The company has facilities in Dartmouth, Truro, Sydney, Saint John, Moncton, Fredericton and Charlottetown.

The acquisition represented an opportunity for the company to find a new market to grow its business, Muldoon said.

“Part of our growth strategy over the last number of years has been to both diversify our lines of businesses as well as on a geographic basis,” he said.

“And Newfoundland is a logical step for us given the amount of future activity in transmission line construction that could happen in that province.”

What made Green’s attractive was that it focused on transmission line maintenance and construction, an area of growth targeted by Emera Utility Services.

“We were looking over there for a while and Green’s has been around for almost 30 years, has a very good, solid reputation for performing quality work and has good relationships with customers,” Muldoon said. “And we felt, of the companies over there, Green’s was the best one for us to acquire.”

As part of the transaction, the entire existing staff of 80 full- and part-time employees from Green’s, including founder and former president Vernon Smith, will join the Emera Utility Services team. Smith has been retained as the new managing director.

“It is a construction company so its staffing levels go up and down based on the amount of projects that they actually have currently underway,” Muldoon said.

While future growth in Newfoundland is planned, Muldoon said the company will focus on moving forward with Green’s.

“I think at this time we’re going to use the next number of weeks to actually integrate Green’s into our operations and get a position for the amount of current work that we have over there with the customers.

“We hope to grow the company based on what we think potentially could be a fair amount of work over there.”
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So what's next? Will they be seeking all the maintenance from Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro's system? Will they be seeking to buy Newfoundland Power?

This Nova Scotia Company and a few wealthy investors want it all - right?

One thing for certain - the tone of the comments confirms that they think the deal on Muskrat is done and they are getting corporately bored - while our Premier puts on a show for the people. 

Flip those utilities say the amigos. How long after Emera takes all what's here in power before HQ buys these assets out?

What a legacy for our children!